Page 75 of Deadly Sights

“Yeah, and you forced me to practice until I never missed a bullseye.”

“Okay, you’ve explained yourself. What I don’t get is why you’re coming to us for help after admitting we can’t trust you,” Julian says.

“I didn’t stop at Thanksgiving.”

“So you had something to do with Julian being shot on Christmas Eve?”

Chelsea’s eyes widen. “This is the first I’m hearing about this, but it tracks. And no, I didn’t know your plans, so I couldn’t have tipped anyone off. But it makes sense why my traps stopped working after Christmas Eve.”

Julian and I fold our arms in unison and glare at her.

“I’ve been giving them bogus locations and times for where I expected you to be, then eliminating the threats as they arrived. That all ended a week ago when their assassins started hunting me instead of looking for you.”

I take another chair and sit across from her. “You’ve been protecting me this whole time?”

“Nadira! You can’t be thinking what I think you are,” Julian protests.

“She needs our help.”

“Really? Because all I’ve heard is she’s a backstabber since the day she met you as an adult.”

“Then you need to listen again. What I heard was she had my life in her hands every day. I was vulnerable to her every day for years. If she drugged my water, she could have ended me without me knowing. She chose to keep me alive.”

Julian slams the chair he overturned and sits beside me.

I rub his shoulder, silently coaxing him to rid himself of his anger. To Chelsea, I ask, “Do you know why they’re desperate to kill me?”

“You’re going to trust her with this, too?” Julian clenches his teeth, his jaw spasming as he tries to calm himself.

“I trust her.” Before he objects, I say, “Even with what she’s said, I still trust her with my life.”

“Dammit Nadira. If you die because of her, I’m?—”

I press my fingers against his lips. “That won’t happen. If anything, reuniting as our old group will give us better odds when we end the organization.” I turn to Chelsea. “So do you know?”

“No, but I assume it has to do with you two renewing your relationship. They did separate you before. Am I on the right track?” She looks from me to Julian and back again.

“They separated us to keep me from telling Julian what I discovered. Then they tried to kill me before I could tell anyone else.”

She frowns at me. “You were ten. What could you have known that would make them go after you so hard?”

“That the organization stole every child and murdered our parents to profit off us as assassins.”

“No… My mom died in childbirth.” Chelsea pushes away from the table and backs away.

Julian’s expression softens as he watches Chelsea’s denial. “Your mom died when they ripped you from her belly. There was an investigation and autopsy report.”

I rise and close the distance between us. When we’re close, I hold her hands. “Chelsea, what I need to know is if you want in on our plan to destroy them.”

CHAPTER 31

VENGEANCE IS OURS

Julian

It’s five in the morning, and Nadira, Chelsea, and I are in a town on the outskirts of Denver. Chelsea sits in the back of the Land Rover while I bite my tongue, amazed I haven’t severed it completely.

Chelsea isn’t the known entity she used to be, but Nadira won’t listen to reason. I can’t deny there’s a kernel of longing inside me for the old days when the three of us bonded and became friends, but that was before Chelsea admitted she’d drugged Nadira.

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